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austingirl

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Everything posted by austingirl

  1. Presumed lost. Sounds like they went quickly, at least.
  2. My husband and son are going, too. At least they moved the start time to 8:30. It'll still feel like Satan's armpit but the sun will be down.
  3. Oh, which airport are you flying into and out of from the US? As far as I know there aren't any direct flights from the US to Coimbatore so you'll likely fly into Mumbai or Hyderabad and then transfer. When you book your flights, give yourself at least 4-5 hours, at the absolute minimum, to transfer. My other Indian horror story involves not having enough time to transfer from the domestic to international terminals at the Mumbai airport when I was flying home from Coimbatore.
  4. I went there for work a few years back, and spent two weeks in Bangalore a few years later to. I'll write up this post assuming you haven't been to India before, so sorry if I'm wrong and telling you stuff you already know. Also, please tell me you already have a visa. I have a horror story about getting mine, but it was a 5-year business visa which may be different from what you need. Definitely visit a temple or two - one of my favorite Indian souvenirs is a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in the local dialect that I got at a temple in Bangalore (In Bangalore it's Kannada and in Coimbatore it's Tamil, not Hindi, btw). I didn't go to a temple in Coimbatore itself but I'm sure any of the bigger ones will have a good gift shop. My absolute favorite part of the Coimbatore trip was a side trip to Ooty. You should definitely go there for one of your open weekends. It's a gorgeous resort town way up in the Niligiri Mountains, about 85 km (52 miles) outside of Coimbatore. In January, this meant that the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler than it was in the city. I have lots of pics. We took a charter bus, and including the one pit stop we made, it took 5 hours to get there. I cannot overstate how much the combo of bad roads and traffic will slow you down, but if you're in a car it might go faster. The drive is beautiful, though: If you stop somewhere along the way, do not leave any windows open when you get out of your car - at this rest stop, I watched an enterprising monkey climb into a parked car and steal a bag of Cheetos. And speaking of rest stops, ask your driver to stop somewhere that has a "Western toilet" - a regular Indian toilet is usually just a hole, like an outhouse. Bring your own tissues in case there's no toilet paper and definitely bring your own hand sanitizer. The other stop we made on the way there was at this woman's coconut stand. It was set up a ways out of the city on a quieter part of the road. She'll cut the top off of a fresh coconut and carve out the meat (which you can eat if you want) and then stick a straw in it so you can drink the fresh coconut milk. This was the one time I didn't follow the guidelines to not eat cold/fresh food that hadn't been heated, and I have no regrets. Didn't have any stomach issues and the coconut tasted amazing. Here you can see a tea field in the back of the photo. The tea from Ooty is known for being some of the best in the country. One day we walked about 3 km down this road from our hotel to a tea shop and had masala chai. They served it in these little metal cups that stung your fingers at first, till the tea cooled a bit, but it was delicious. A few other random things and tips for India travel in general. Coimbatore itself is pretty conservative compared to bigger places like Bangalore, but I'm assuming you're a guy so this may not be something that affects you - the social standards for women there are much different than for men. You won't see any women drinking alcohol in public in Coimbatore, for example. And don't expect there to be alcohol at social gatherings. I wasn't expecting this but the Europeans I was with had prepared and brought their own booze. One night, after a big company meeting, we all hung out at this one guy's hotel room and were joined by our male Indian coworkers. Several of whom had brought weed. But none of the Indian women ever hung out with us after hours. Definitely try to do some shopping at the Coimbatore mall, and pick up some pashminas for the women in your life. Or for yourself, if that's how you roll. They're super expensive by Indian terms but not so much by American/European terms. I have two hand-woven cashmere pashminas that cost about $60 each. They had a really cool weaving exhibit when we were there and you could watch them make a pashmina right there. My Indian coworkers would not let us women go anywhere by ourselves in the mall. As a guy you should be fine; just keep an eye out for pickpockets and whatnot. You will need to take your shoes off to go inside a temple. There will likely be a little old lady at the entrance who'll take your shoes; be sure to have some cash to tip her with when you pick your shoes up as you leave. Many tourist attractions have different entry costs for India citizens vs non-citizens. They're not checking passports or anything - if you aren't visibly Indian you'll pay the bigger fee. Also, many of the tourist attractions have rules about taking pics inside. Sometimes they aren't allowed at all, and sometimes you have to pay an additional fee for the privilege. I made the mistake of taking an unsanctioned photo inside the sultan's palace in Mysore and was quickly corrected by a large, armed Indian man who worked there. I don't know if this happens to guys too, but my coworker and I (both very pale white girls) were asked countless times to be in photos at various tourist attractions. Sometimes it was with one or two people, and sometimes with whole families. I don't know if it was because we are white, or girls, or both. Hope this helps! If I think of anything else, I'll post. Overall, it'll be a great trip. I'd love to go back to India for non-work purposes and take my family.
  5. Does one get appointed to him? I'm not a lawyer, but I think public defenders are for people who can't afford representation, which would rule it out as an option for him.
  6. Yeah, I'm trying to be optimistic, but this is all I can think of when Trump news breaks.
  7. Yeah I can just hear Robin Leach describing it in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, indeed.
  8. Aww, poor baby! Both of my dogs would do the same thing if they were separated. Edgar once broke out of a crate that we'd reinforced with two carabiners, then destroyed all the pillows on the bed in the room he was in, then gouged claw marks into the bedroom door. 🙄
  9. Rocket over here looking like his edible just kicked in.
  10. Like, Lottie's starting to see cracks in her commune, making me wonder if the truth is trying to break through. Her psychiatrist is an illusion. Maybe what the others see during their day is also an illusion? Wouldn't her fantasy be a place where people love her FOR her weirdness and see it as almost propetic, instead of in the woods where everyone just put up with her unless she was doing stuff like showing how she knows how to amputate limbs. Misty randomly finds a guy online who is PERFECT for her and willing to help with her crazy shit. Adam's murder is nicely swept under the rug with some convenient blackmail and death. Tai's a senator and yet someone never talks about her wife or child or how they are faring during all of this. Etc.
  11. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that the adult timeline is a collective hallucinated fever dream from a bunch of starving people about to die.
  12. I worked with Brent's wife for 9 years. Delivered a meal to their house when they had their first kid, who's the same age as my youngest. I think he was a public defender in Wilco back then. I didn't know him well at all but his wife is one of the kindest people I know. When I had a miscarriage she wrote me a lovely card that I still have. And fun fact - his wife's sister is the founder of Camp Gladiator. Anyway, he definitely seems like an asshole now. Maybe he was then, too. I'm going to reach out to his wife and see how she's doing.
  13. And also, what's happening with Tai's adult storyline? Isn't she a senator? With a wife in the hospital and a child being taken care of by...whom? No one outside the high school group/commune is trying to find her?
  14. I thought the second-to-last episode was great, but they fumbled a bit with the finale. Still enjoyed it but a few things.
  15. To paraphrase, Jamie Tartt's mom is the Jamie Tartt of moms. Also, You've Got Mail > Sleepless in Seattle any day of the week.
  16. You're talking about the finale of s1, right?
  17. I had assumed they were married or otherwise together - I was surprised when they made it seem like a big reveal that they were into each other and wanted to retire together.
  18. I swear that when Holston went outside and they showed outside from his POV, the bodies disappeared. When you view cleanings from the inside, you see the bodies, but I don't think they're actually there. I'll need to look up the clip from when the camera feed blipped last week, but I don't think the bodies were shown then either.
  19. That song always makes me think of Scream, but I don’t think they were trying to evoke another show. More like trying to draw contrast between the lyrics about the actual devil and this grumpy man in a super bright, out of character clothing choice he wears out of love.
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